Newsletters | March 25, 2014

Low-income renters continue to face a growing disparity between income and housing, according to the report "Out of Reach 2014," released by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) yesterday, March 24. In order to afford a decent two-bedroom rental home in 2014 at fair market rent (FMR) as estimated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a worker must earn $18.92 an hour, NLIHC found in the report. That means that a one-bedroom or a two-bedroom rental unit at FMR is out of reach for full-time minimum wage workers in every state.

Unemployment Insurance Extension a Priority in the Senate
The Senate continues to work on legislation that would extend expired unemployment insurance benefits for five months and allow retroactive payments going back to December 28, the date that Congress allowed unemployment insurance benefits to expire for more than two million Americans. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said many Americans have been "driven to poverty" since the benefits expired in December. While Sen. Reid maintains that extending unemployment insurance is a top priority, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) recently voiced his opposition to the extension, which means that, though the bill will likely pass in the Senate, it remains unclear whether it will gain enough votes to pass in the House.

Appropriations Subcommittees Hold Hearings on Budget Proposal
This morning, the Senate Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Subcommittee held a hearing on proposed fiscal year (FY) 2015 appropriations for programs under its jurisdiction. Eric Shinseki, secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and a number of other VA officials, served as witnesses.

This morning the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies subcommittee held a similar hearing for programs under its jurisdiction. Numerous public witnesses provided testimony, including representatives from the Elder Justice Coalition, National Community Action Foundation, National Domestic Violence Hotline, and the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors. Further information on this hearing will be posted here shortly.

Congress Returns from Recess
Yesterday, Monday, March 24, Congress returned from recess.

Homelessness Falls 21 percent in Memphis-Shelby County, Tenn.

In conjunction with Memphis and Shelby County's release of 2014 Point-In-Time Count numbers on Thursday, March 20, the Alliance has published an updated "Community Snapshot of Memphis-Shelby County." From 2012 to 2014, overall homelessness in Memphis-Shelby County, Tenn. decreased by 21 percent and chronic homelessness among individuals decreased by 39 percent. The number of homeless families decreased by 30 percent, from 214 families in 2012 to 149 families in 2014.

As winter comes to a close, communities across the country are beginning to release their findings from their 2014 Point-In-Time Counts, and the Alliance is keeping track. In this post, we talk about how you can help us keep our interactive map of homelessness estimates for 2014 updated.

In this post we take a look at St. Joseph's Villa of Richmond, a housing provider that discontinued the residential component of its Flagler Home in order to implement rapid re-housing, a move that won it the Council on Accreditation (COA)'s Innovative Practices Award.